162 



XEAV ENGLAND FARMER. 



Apuil 



FLOWAGE OP LANDS. 



The Legislature of ISGO passed an act that the 

 dam across the Concord river, at Xorth Billerica, 

 should be decreased in height thirty-three inches, 

 and that this might be done at any time after the 

 first day of September of that year. A commis- 

 sion, consisting of Messrs. Hudson, of Lexing- 

 ton, Bkli-OWS, of Pepperell, and Bigelow, of 

 New Bedford, was appointed, and it was sup- 

 posed they would proceed at once to lower the 

 dam. Before they did proceed to that work, 

 however, the dam-holders obtained an injunction 

 from the Supreme Court, and no decision v/as 

 had until the early part of January. In the mean- 

 time fall elections were corrupted by the test 

 question, "V/ill you pledge yourself to urge and 

 vote for the repeal of the bill directing the dam 

 to be taken down ?'' If the candidate stated that 

 he could not pledge himself to vote to repeal a 

 measure loliich he had not investigated, and would 

 not so pledge himself, some strange influence was 

 found to throw him overboard, and bring some 

 more servile and subservient tool into his place. 

 When the elections had taken place, an anony- 

 mous pamphlet appeared, and found its way to 

 the Senators and members elect, filled with gross 

 misrepresentations of the facts in the case, and 

 ■we are informed that most of the members were 

 visited by the dam-holders themselves, or their 

 agents. That a system of the most shameful 

 and unjustifiable "lobbying" has been going on 

 through their agency during the entire session is 

 manifest to those who have occasionally looked 

 in upon either house. 



Petitions were also obtained in aid of the ap- 

 plication to repeal, based upon the false state- 

 ments in pamphlet that was ashamed to own 

 a name, and these statements and the request to 

 repeal have been urged upon the Legislature with 

 an obstinacy which nothing but a lavish expen- 

 diture of means and a sinking cause could se- 

 cure. 



The present Legislature, early in the session, 

 appointed another Joint Committee, being the 

 third which has been appointed in this case, and 

 for three or four weeks past they have been hearing 

 the parties. Some new evidence has been in- 

 troduced, but none that materially changes the 

 aspect of the case. 



On Friday, March 1, the case for the meadow 

 owners, — ihQmeadoio hay men ! as one ot the wit- 

 nesses of the dam-holders insolently termed them, 

 — was argued before the committee and a large 

 audience at the State House, by Judge Fukncii. 

 During the three and a half hours which he spoke, 

 he scarcely alluded to the testimony of the witness- 

 es called by the land-owners, but based his ar- 

 guments almost entirely upon the admissions of 

 counsel for the dam-hold(?rs, and upon the sur- 



veys made by their own agents. A more com- 

 pact, luminous and logical argument we never 

 listened to. It held the committee and audience in 

 the closest attention, and with evident signs of 

 gratification during the whole time. But the ef- 

 fort was something more than a logical argument 

 — it was a mathematical demonstration, proved 

 by their own surveys, that the dam is the principal 

 cause of the ruin of some eight or ten thousand 

 acres of the best lands in the Commonwealth ! 

 This fact he made as clear, as the fact is clear 

 that water will run down hill by its own gravity. 

 The following are the principal points contained 

 in his argument. 



1. The act was passed after the most deliber- 

 ate consideration. 



2. In accordance with the prayer of the peti- 

 tioners. 



3. In accordance with familiar principles of 

 Legislation, and the true spirit of progress. 



4. The Act is adjudged by the Supreme Court 

 to be constitutional. 



5. A great injury is suffered by the land own- 

 ers and by the public. 



6. The dam is the principal cause of the flow- 

 age, and a fatal obstruction to any improvement. 



7. The dam was created by improvident legis- 

 lation in chartering the Middlesex Canal Com- 

 pany. 



8. The land-owners are in no fault. 



9. The Commonwealth can always afford to be 

 just to her citizens. 



The effort was a brilliant one in matter and 

 manner, and proves that Judge Fuench will 

 scarcely stand second to any in the State as an 

 advocate, and in point of legal ability. 



Digestion or the Food of Cattle. — "Prac- 

 tice with Science" is the golden motto of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England, and this 

 is just the kind of testimony now being received 

 in favor of Thorley's Food for Cattle ; for agricul- 

 turists and other owners of stock are, by the suc- 

 cessful use of this condiment, beginning to expe- 

 rience that the value of food depends upon how it 

 is digested. Chemically, its constituent elements 

 may be of the highest vahie, but if imperfectly di- 

 gested, what is its value to the animal which cats 

 it ? During the past month, four first class prizes 

 have been awarded to Joseph Thorlcy, (the Inven- 

 tor and Sole Proprietor of "Thorley's Food for 

 Cattle,") for his discovery of a condiment which 

 enables animals of all kinds to extract more nour- 

 ishment from hay and straw seasoned with it than 

 from unseasoned food, although the latter may 

 contain a much greater amount of alimentary 

 matter. 



Tue Mount Vernon Pear is the name of a 

 new variety described in the Gardener's Monthly, 

 and considered one of the best pears of the sea- 

 son, which is last of Oct. and beginning of Nov. 



